Commercial "Kettle" type corn popping apparatus, capable of producing large quantities of popcorn, have become popular for use by vendors at theme parks, outdoor public gatherings and other events. It is recognized as an old concept in preparing popcorn. Such apparatus, and even that used to prepare commercial popcorn typically comprises a pivotable cooking kettle, a burner or other source of heat below the kettle, and a contiguous receiving container for the popped corn. Such apparatus is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,457,854; 2,477,416; 2,117, 872; 5,857,403; and 6,032,572.
In use, a fairly large hemispheric bowl-like cooking or popping kettle is manually pivoted from the first position over the heat source wherein popping takes place, to a second position over a receiving bowl (sometimes referred to as a "primary catcher") where the popped corn is bagged for resale. Heretofore at least one of the popping and receiving bowls were made of copper and thus continually subject to cleaning and polishing to meet health standards. The operator typically uses a wooden paddle for stirring, which paddles have been found incapable of meeting certain health standards. The receiving bowl, such as found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,857,403, is usually a mirror image of the popping kettle, or in other instances rectangular, or square. As a result, in many cases, as the popping kettle is raised to the second position, popped popcorn spills outside the receiving kettle onto the ground. Another problem is in manually pivoting a hot popping kettle from one position to the other as it is made of heavy metal, even without the presence of the popcorn. Further problems include keeping the popping corn within the popping kettle and the separation and removal of un-popped corn or `culls` from the receiving bowl.